Bill Heller, a public school teacher, has written a pretty good open letter to President Obama regarding education, highlighting the successes of his own school as well as problems that federal involvement has caused for public education through the passage of No Child Left Behind. (All block quotes are from the letter, but there is a lot more to it than I’ve selected here).
He makes it clear that problems being faced by some schools in some areas should not direct policy and law making for all schools. I haven’t seen much vilification of public school teachers in the media, but then my radar is a little more sensitive toward the vilification of homeschoolers. As a teacher, I received nothing but respect but maybe that is a curiosity of working in a 100% Hispanic school district. At any rate, he does a fine job of outlining the main problems with No Child Left Behind and the testing craze it has spawned.
I. Watered down curriculum:
First, by forcing all students to pass certain tests, we’ve essentially had to “water down” important courses. In New York, for example, the biology curriculum has been gutted of content so that everybody can pass a “Regents level” science exam. The new algebra curriculum is great, but the cutoff score is so low that students have figured out that practically anybody who can fog a mirror can pass it. Under the guise of raising standards for all, we end up selling short our most capable students. There is little reward to excel, only to “pass the test.” Both ends of the spectrum get ignored at test time just to get enough students “over the cut score.” By their very design, “magically” determined cutoff scores can be manipulated to produce a predetermined number of students who will pass a given test. Beating the testing game has become an end instead of a means to an end. (Emphasis mine).
There was a time when teachers in my district were shown a graph with a little bubble, the target students. Children above that bubble would do fine with or without you, children below that bubble were too far from the target to waste resources on. Almost all instruction was focused on that small bubble near the middle where the teacher was most likely to to be able to have a measurable effect come testing time.
II. Waste of instructional time
Now, all year long, precious days are lost and enormous amounts of money are spent on annual testing. Out here in the country we have a saying: “Nobody ever fattened a calf by weighing it.” Unfortunately, we’ve figured out that only tested subjects “count” anymore. Many of our limited resources get pumped into the few areas that get tested; other areas are given short shrift when it comes to funding, staffing and, more importantly time. (Emphasis mine).
Yeah. Once I counted up the required hours for all the “core” (meaning tested subjects), I had exactly five minutes left in the day to teach science, art and history. I can’t help but laugh when people talk about homeschoolers potentially weak in science. Who in the public school system cares about science anymore?
III. Boxing Children Rather than Developing Individual Talents and Interests
In order to play the NCLB game and to avoid having the stigma of being labeled a “failing school,” there is a lot of pressure not to classify needy students in order to avoid having to disaggregate data and make AYP for special education students as a separate subgroup. In addition, students with very limited abilities are dumped into classes that are way beyond their developmental abilities instead of being given appropriate instruction at a level at which they can be successful. Some have been forced to sit through lengthy exams that they have no hope of passing. In the same vein, we need to recognize that not all students will want to pursue a four-year college degree. (Emphasis mine)
So, uh, now that we’ve established what the current fixation on testing is really accomplishing in many schools, let’s make the homeschoolers play the game, too.
Make homeschooled students take the same tests as public school students are required to take in order to continue homeschooling.
How much sense does that make? But I’ve written on this subject at length before and shan’t go into it again:
But it does seem a bit ironic to spend most of a letter attacking testing and then throw a few more kids into the crazy mess it has created.
homeschool homeschooling No Child Left Behind standardized testing
The saddest thing is how underserved kids are in schools today. No matter where they fall on the spectrum, they’re of little value (to the powers that be) beyond a statistic that will bring funds into the school/district while simultaneously keeping said school/district off the radar.
Teachers who love children and truly want to serve them must have a horrible time balancing that passion with the bureaucratic nonsense of NCLB.
What a mess.
Isn’t that the idea of socialism? That everyone suffer on the same level?
So, if I’m reading it correctly, what he’s saying is that what’s killing the goose should also be given to the gander?
What a world we live in.
Wow, his logic is maddening.
Wow. These public education types just can’t help themselves can they? They will not be satisfied until they have my kids. Haven’t they ruined enough already? Why do they need mine too??
It’s discouraging to hear homeschool parents being defensive and counterattacking “public schools” when Dana’s main point was that as a proposal for new direction to the Congress and the fed ED, this is a fine letter about public school reform. Much of it I could have written myself about NCLB.
We can choose whether to keep thinking and sounding like a beleaguered fringe interest group, or not. I see all the political stars aligning for the ascendence of intelligent public debate about well-organized, practical programs and choices, universal access without universal mandates, non-ideological governance accountable to US rather than the other way around, enhanced personal privacy, etc etc — not one kind of schooling as social control but for all kinds of real education, for the good of America.
Poorly educated kids who grow up to be poor voters, workers, parents are a dangerous problem for all of us, no matter how they get that way. I’m genuinely excited about the huge opening we have right now, to rethink our own thinking about education politics and leap forward together instead of shooting at each other over grudge-holding identity politics.
I agree, Dana, that this letter is right on track… until he gets to home education and goes over the logic cliff.
I do see quite a bit of teacher bashing, but the media is not helpful in this area. Bad news is news and good news is boring.
There is a constant flow of sensational reports of teachers molesting students and being involved in other less-than-savory activities. This is sad and very alarming, but we don’t live on lilypads- we know that there are bad people in every vocation on the planet.
I’ve blogged about how there are inept teachers in the sytem, but IMO it’s the teacher’s unions that handcuff admins and principals so that they cannot find and keep the best teachers. I hear complaints from good teachers and dedicated principals quite often about how they are required to ‘pass the trash’ from one school to another. I think teacher ‘bashing’ would be greatly reduced by empowering communities and schools to be able to recruit the best and brightest, and dismiss those who have proven to be unsuited for the job.
Case in point about rethinking how we think and sound — homeschool parents perpetuating a phrase demeaning any human being as “trash” (and not even in reference to child abusers, just to staff members who aren’t “the best.”)
And I have to disagree with the whole premise, not just its unfortunate phrasing. Situational psychology research persuades me thjat public schooling won’t be hunky-dory when we can get rid of some problem individuals who don’t measure up, can’t make the grade (students OR teachers.) Just like it’s not about the money, the entire complex culture of School needs transformation. And public schooling won’t be fine if only the good parents would come back from private schools and charters and home education, and get involved again.
““You can’t be a sweet cucumber in a vinegar barrel.”
Stanford psychologist Philip Zimbardo details how “place” can win over “person” through concepts like institutionalization, escalating dehumanization, stress and stereotyping, the seduction of boredom, the evil of inaction and much more.
So it’s the the whole vinegar barrel, not a few apocryphal sour cucumbers we can’t quite ever find and eradicate — that’s pickling kids and teachers and whole families, thus in need of America’s most creative, mighty, highest-minded efforts at change.
JJ-
“Passing the trash” is the phrase that teachers use to describe the process of transferring inept teachers, as well as those accused of misconduct, to other schools. It isn’t my phrase, which is why I put in in quotes, and it certainly isn’t a ‘homeschooler bashing public school’ thing.
Yes, and? Surely that just proves the point about how a bad barrel can spoil everyone in it — and spew some vinegar out on home education too.
I do not understand how the powers that be can continue to ask us to teach all students the same when not all students learn the same way and have different needs. The conflict between NCLB and IDEA drives me crazy because I’m in trouble whichever law I am told to follow. I’m not opposed to accountability but not when we have to sacrifice our students to be accountable.
NCLB is a problem in and of itself, but mostly it brings light to issues that have been around since education began in this country. Those who are gifted, well educated, and economically responsible will see to it that their children acquire the knowledge and education they need, whether it be through homeschool, private school, public school, or some combination thereof. These parents see that their children read, visit museums, learn, and generally acquire the educational and social skills to be successful members of society. We haven’t really learned yet how to address the needs of those who are not gifted, whose parents are not well educated, who don’t speak English, and who are not economically able to survive. While I know a number of sincere and successful homeschoolers, as a teacher/administrator I also know a number of parents who “homeschool” their children as a means of avoiding the attendance police. No education happening there. NCLB is an attempt, however little we may like it, to address these issues. Unfortunately, there’s only so much money available for education and we simply see it moved from one place to another in trying to comply with various laws and programs.